What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for February 15, 2013. ARB Newsclips for February
15, 2013
This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
of Communications. You may need to sign in or register with
individual websites to view some of the following news articles.
AIR POLLUTION
Deal reached over pollution from Calif. Warehouse. A proposed
mega-warehouse project in Riverside County will move forward, but
project developers will have to monitor for pollution as part of
a settlement Thursday with the state of California and
environmentalists. "It is a false choice to suggest that in
order for California business to thrive, public health must
suffer," state Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement
announcing the deal. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_22591897/settlement-reached-calif-mega-warehouse-project?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_22591897/settlement-reached-calif-mega-warehouse-project?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/section/140/article/66562/
Using Planes to Fix Air-Pollution Satellites. Anyone who's ever
driven down Interstate 5 in central California's Kern County
knows about the smell. The one that penetrates cars despite
closed vents and windows. Wafting from an adjacent cattle ranch,
the largest on the West Coast, the well-known odor comes from the
ammonia all those cows produce. California's Central Valley,
which spans I-5, regularly has some of the worst air pollution in
the United States because of its unfortunate combination of
geography and agriculture. Posted.
http://news.yahoo.com/using-planes-fix-air-pollution-satellites-220157634.html
CLIMATE CHANGE
Obama’s Climate Call May Hasten EU Carbon Fix, IETA Chief Says.
President Barack Obama’s call for Congress to act on climate
change may embolden European Union policy makers to fix the
bloc’s ailing carbon market, said the president of the
International Emissions Trading Association. A proposal for
stricter emissions rules in northeast America may also provide
the impetus for EU nations to tackle the oversupply of carbon
allowances in the world’s biggest cap- and-trade market, Dirk
Forrister, president of the Geneva-based lobby group, said
yesterday. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-15/obama-s-climate-call-may-hasten-eu-carbon-fix-ieta-chief-says.html
Climate Change’s Links to Conflict Draws UN Attention. Imagine
India in 2033. It has overtaken China as the most populous
nation. Yet with 1.5 billion citizens to feed, it’s been three
years since the last monsoon. Without rain, crops die and people
starve. The seeds of conflict take root. This is one of the
scenarios Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute
for Climate Impact Research, will present today to members of the
United Nations Security Council in New York to show the
connection between climate change and global security challenges.
Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-15/climate-change-s-links-to-conflict-draws-un-attention.html
Obama acknowledges climate-change difficulties. President Obama,
asked Thursday how he will get anything done on climate change,
hinted at what executive actions he might take and acknowledged
that getting anything through Congress will be difficult. "Some
of this is ideological, some of it is economic, and it's not all
partisan," he said in a Google+ chat. "I have to tell you that
there are some Democrats, for example who represent states or
districts that are heavily reliant on old power plants and are
more heavily manufacturing based. Posted.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/02/obama-acknowledges-climatechange-difficulties-157106.html
FERC rejects challenge to Calif. cap-and-trade rules. Federal
officials have declined to intervene in California's
cap-and-trade system, dismissing a challenge from out-of-state
power generators to rules associated with the state's economywide
greenhouse gas market. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
on Wednesday dismissed PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric's
objections to California's electric grid operator's changing its
rules to comply with the state's carbon trading regulations.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2013/02/15/5 BY
SUBSRIPTION ONLY
FUELS
Total Reveals Cause of North Sea Natural Gas Leak. Total, the
French oil company, has revealed its version of the causes of the
major North Sea natural gas leak, which has shut down production
on the company’s flagship Elgin-Franklin North Sea field for
almost a year. At the time of the leak, in March 2012, gas from
the Elgin-Franklin complex accounted for about 7 percent of
British production, and the British Treasury has blamed the
outage at the field for lowering tax receipts and economic
growth. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/business/global/total-reveals-cause-of-north-sea-natural-gas-leak.html?_r=0
Marcellus Shale gas boom expected to slow in 2013. Energy
experts say the boom in Marcellus Shale natural gas production
will slow this year but not because there's any lack of supply.
The slowdown is happening because drillers are waiting for
pipelines to expand, new markets to develop and wholesale prices
to rise. "The hiring has tapered off. What we see is a holding
pattern," said Kathryn Klaber, the president of the Marcellus
Shale Coalition, an industry group. Posted.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/feb/15/marcellus-shale-gas-boom-expected-to-slow-in/#ixzz2KzOKn187
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_22596368/marcellus-shale-gas-boom-expected-slow-2013
School closing near San Bruno explosion site. Too few students
forced the school board to close an elementary school near the
site of the 2010 San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion. The
San Francisco Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/UkHvWc) says the board
voted unanimously on Wednesday night to close Crestmoor
Elementary School at the end of the school year. Many families
who lost homes in the explosion and fire sent their children to
Crestmoor. Posted.
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_22597416/school-closing-near-san-bruno-explosion-site?IADID=Search-www.sbsun.com-www.sbsun.com#ixzz2KzW3k4Bk
Leading locomotive maker sees LNG as a future fuel. Liquefied
natural gas locomotives could become a reality in the
"not-too-distant future," GE Transportation President and CEO
Lorenzo Simonelli said last week, noting that his company is
working with customers and engineers to develop the technology.
"It is a cost-competitive fuel, and with it being abundant here,
there's the opportunity to start to put it into a competitive
aspect with diesel," he said last Friday. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/print/2013/02/15/6 BY
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
VEHICLES
"World's greenest" Chevy Silverado now ready to order. Doesn't
the idea of a big truck that doesn't use gas, is biodegradable
and is 100-percent recyclable sound appealing? The group trying
to get you to own one even says, "You can tell all your
environmentalist friends that you just happen to have the world's
greenest Chevy Silverado." Except, well, the 2014 Chevrolet
Silverado in question here is made of paper. It's a pretty sweet
model, but it's not exactly the zero-emission truck we've been
hoping for. Posted.
http://green.autoblog.com/2013/02/15/worlds-greenest-chevy-silverado-now-ready-to-order/
California HOV access could be extended 10 years for green cars.
A few years ago it was not uncommon to hear a Toyota Prius buyer
say, "I got it for the sticker." The yellow sticker they were
referring to allowed the driver to use the High Occupancy Vehicle
(carpool) lane even when alone in the car which, as every other
LA driver knows, led to the frequent sight of a Prius with a sole
occupant zooming by at 94 miles per hour along the center
barrier. Posted.
http://www.autoblog.com/2013/02/15/california-hov-access-could-be-extended-10-years-for-green-cars/
Action plan to put 1.5 million zero-emission cars on California
roads by 2025. The office of California Governor has released a
roadmap that details specific strategies and actions to help
accelerate the market for plug-in electric vehicles and fuel cell
electric vehicles in California. According to the Governor’s
Executive Order of March 2012, there should be 1.5 million
zero-emission vehicles on Californian roads by 2025.
http://www.cars21.com/news/view/5233
HIGH-SPEED RAIL
Palo Alto looks to Hill to soothe high-speed-rail concerns.
California's high-speed rail project may have left the station
last year, when the state Legislature approved funding for the
first segment by a single vote, but Palo Alto officials still
have plenty of concerns about the locally unpopular project, and
they hope their newest representative in Sacramento can help.
The city is now working with its newest representative, Sen.
Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, to clean up Senate Bill 1029…Posted.
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=28631
GREEN ENERGY
Obama gives green energy funds a jump-start. In the wake of yet
another monster storm in the Northeastern U.S., we are once again
reminded of the need to address climate change, which is like a
Grendel that keeps coming out of its cave to ravage us with
increasingly violent weather. The President outlined new
initiatives on climate change in the State of the Union address
on Tuesday. If they gain traction in Washington, it will give a
boost to stocks and exchange-traded funds that invest in
alternative energy and global warming solutions. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-column-wasik-green-idUSBRE91E0S020130215
Clean Energy Faces Hurdles in Legislature. During his State of
the Union address Tuesday, President Obama doubled down on his
vision for renewable energy, calling for more wind and solar
power. In Texas, the Legislature is less enthusiastic. As the
session progresses, renewable energy advocates are bracing to
defend critical policies that have helped Texas become the
leading wind-power state. The ascendancy of the Tea Party, an
abundance of cheap natural gas and tighter budgets have reduced
the sway of the wind industry. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/us/clean-energy-foresees-fight-in-texas-legislature.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint. Many people believe that
Hurricane Sandy made the consequences of climate change painfully
clear, so it might be tempting to think that stricter emissions
standards and renewable-energy investments could lead to a less
stormy future. But while these high-level policy initiatives are
important, changes on the home front matter, too. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/realestate/reducing-your-carbon-footprint.html?pagewanted=print
MISCELLANEOUS
Bloomberg Pushes for Plastic-Foam Ban in ‘State of the City’. New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he intends to use his final
year in office to push for more recycling and electric vehicles,
a curbside food-composting pilot program and a ban on
plastic-foam food packaging. In his final State of the City
address today, the third- term mayor characterized his 11 years
in office as a period in which he made the most-populous U.S.
city healthier and more environmentally friendly. Posted.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-14/bloomberg-to-push-for-styrofoam-ban-in-final-nyc-state-of-city-.html
Airbus Abandons Plan to Use Controversial Batteries in New Jet.
Faced with the potential of a prolonged investigation into what
caused batteries on two Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets to catch fire
or emit smoke last month, Boeing’s European rival, Airbus, said
Friday that it had abandoned plans to use the same battery
technology on its forthcoming wide-body jet, the A350-XWB. Airbus
said it started informing airline customers on Thursday that it
would not move ahead with an original plan to use the lightweight
lithium-ion batteries to power a number of the A350’s onboard
systems…Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/business/global/airbus-abandons-plan-to-use-controversial-batteries.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print
BLOGS
That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t. Elon Musk,
the chief executive of Tesla Motors, has now responded in detail
to the account of my test drive of his Model S electric car,
using the company's new East Coast Superchargers that was
published in The Times on Feb. 10. His broadest charge is that I
consciously set out to sabotage the test. That is not so. I was
delighted to receive the assignment to try out the company's new
East Coast Supercharger network and as I previously noted in no
way anticipated - or deliberately caused - the troubles I
encountered. Posted.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/that-tesla-data-what-it-says-and-what-it-doesnt/?ref=business&pagewanted=print
The Air That Kills in India. The thick haze of outdoor air
pollution common in India today is the nation's fifth-largest
killer, after high blood pressure, indoor air pollution (mainly
from cooking fires), smoking and poor nutrition, according to a
new analysis presented in New Delhi by the Boston-based Health
Effects Institute. In 2010, outdoor air pollution contributed to
over 620,000 premature deaths in India, up from 100,000 in 2000.
''It's not just breathing bad air,'' said Aaron Cohen, the
principal epidemiologist at the institute. Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/the-air-that-kills-in-india/?pagewanted=print
Environmental Group Targets Spewing Buildings in Pollution
Report. When people consider the prime sources of carbon gas
emissions in New York City, cars, trucks and buses belching smoke
are often the first culprits to come to mind. In fact, homes and
offices spew far more carbon into the atmosphere than all motor
vehicles in the city combined. Some 75 percent of all carbon
emissions in the city come from the buildings. Posted.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/environmental-group-targets-spewing-buildings-in-pollution-report/?partner=rss
A Climate Rally at the Right Time. When I started talking about
climate change more than a decade ago, I worried my future
grandchildren would someday face rising sea levels and punishing
drought. Now it's clear those dangers won't wait until a later
date. They have arrived already, and they are delivering
heartache and suffering right now.
I see it here in New York, where Hurricane Sandy destroyed
houses, drained nest eggs, and shuttered businesses. I see it in
the Midwest, where drought pushed farmers to plow under their
crops and thin their herds. Posted.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-beinecke/a-climate-rally-at-the-ri_b_2695583.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
How To Do Electric-Car Chargers Right: New Target Store In CA.
Electric-car drivers know the problem all too well. It's called
"getting ICEd"--when a gasoline car parks in the spot for
reserved for electric cars to use a public charging station. Now
a new Target store, sited in a conventional suburban mall in
Fremont, California, offers an example of how to minimize that
problem. Posted.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1082327_how-to-do-electric-car-chargers-right-new-target-store-in-ca